After the relative box office disappointment of Godzilla’s previous attempt at levelling the skyline of Tokyo into something resembling the Arizona Flats, Toho Studios reasoned that updating some of the King Of The Monster’s old sparring partners for modern audiences was the way to go, so naturally first in line for revamp duties was Toho’s uber villain, the triple-headed space dragon, King Ghidorah.
It proved to be a savvy choice as the massive, golden bastard had been Joker to Godzilla’s Batman since the mid-60s, but also helping the budding Heisei era to finally find its feet is a kickass, final reel upgrade for its antagonist and a plot that’s sheer lunacy.
True, one of the flaws of the previous movie – the ambitious, but cluttered Godzilla Vs. Biollante – was an over complicated plot told with too straight a face (cos if you can’t smile at a giant plant monster, what CAN you smile at) and while GVKG’s story is admittedly even more complicated, it’s told with such hysterical energy it’s hard not to be charmed.
So with time travel being the order of the day here, buckle up and try to cling on. Ready?
A trio of visitors arrive from the year 2204 who call themselves “Futurians” (even though they’ve technically come from their present) to warn us that in the near future, Godzilla will rise and finally destroy Japan once and for all – however, they have a plan to change things. Meanwhile, struggling sci-fi author, Kenchiro Terasawa, thinks he has finally figured out Godzilla’s origin based on a story of a giant dinosaur saving a group of Japanese soldiers stationed on Lagos Island during World War II. As the same island was later destroyed by a hydrogen bomb test in 1954, he reasons that the “Godzillasaurus” was mutated by the radiation into the super-sized lizard that first attacked Tokyo months later.
Still with me?
A deal is struck with the Futurians (one of whom looks distractingly like Ralph Malph from Happy Days) to go back in time and remove Godzillasaurus from the island before the nuclear blast occurs to stop him becoming mutated and with the aid of their lantern-jawed cyborg operative, M-11, the mission is successful and Godzilla is never created (even though everyone somehow still remembers him). But due to a double cross by the time travelers, who have been lying about their motives all along, the blast instead mutates some cuddly creatures planted there in Godzilla’s place named Dorats to become King Ghidorah who will bring about the destruction of Japan that the Futurians actually desire.
Ok, deep breath. Nearly there…
To combat King Ghidorah’s rampage, a counter plan is formed to use a nuclear submarine to bombard the still living, but relocated, Godzillasaurus in order to recreate the King Of The Monsters anew, but due to modern nuclear power being more potent it results in a bigger and more violent Godzilla who not only takes out the Futurians AND King Ghidorah, but threatens to destroy Tokyo too. It’s all on the line as a Futurian traitor, psychic agent Miki Saegusa a d a terrified Kenchiro decide to use technology from the future to pimp up King Ghidorah’s corpse into Mecha-King Ghidorah in an effort to halt this pumped up Godzilla’s brutal attack.
See what I mean?… Absolutely fucking mental.
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah seems to be a concerted effort to take the same, dense level of storytelling that made Godzilla Vs. Biollante so frenzied, but with a way more, pulpy edge that gives a huge nod to the crazy, anything goes days of the Showa era. Not only has the franchise delved back into its rich cast of Kaiju characters to reboot one of Toho’s most relentless villains, but we also get a new Akira Ifukube score that plays all the old bangers in order to feel more familiar to the classic lineage of the series.
However, its here that things change. While both Return Of Godzilla and Biollante, with their more grounded tones, could be argued as better made movies, King Ghidorah rockets by on sheer hyperactivity alone, utilising the kind of absurd, half-assed science seen in dog-eared, pulp, sci-fi novels that results in an entertainingly uneven ride that veers wildly from cool to ludicrous and back again less time that it takes for Godzilla to charge up on of his blue, explosive, radioactive exhalations.
Also, as were technically in reboot territory here, Kazuki Õmori’s script allows for a vast reinvention of the Godzilla mythos that proves to be as fascinating as it is completely bananas. Thanks to all the time travelling malarkey, Godzilla’s origins now takes in that he once was a lone breed of dinosaur that somehow not only able to shrug off Extinction, but even, inadvertently pitches in against the Americans during WWII. Subsequently, the H-bomb tests mutated him into the creature that raided Japan in both 1954 and 1984 and then, after the Futurians stick their history altering oars in, get supercharged to be even bigger and badder than he’s ever been before. Conversely, King Ghidorah’s origin is entwined after a spot of time hopping switcharoo, skipping over that space-Kaiju stuff to make him born from the mutation of the futuristic equivalent of a trio of adorable, genetically created, emotional support critters.
It’s all bold stuff and the action is delivered with such carefree velocity that all the wonky effects and awful time travel science is wiped away by some truly great Kaiju fights and a sense of goofy energy that not only chucks in Spielberg references and a super powered android, it also keeps flipping the script by making both Godzilla and King Ghidorah switch places as both protagonist and antagonist as the plot ploughs on.
It’s here that I should take a moment to congratulate the Heisei era for such a cool Godzilla design that originated in Biollante and is taken to it’s awesome extreme here. Sporting a mean as hell look to match his unpredictable temperament, he’s too fucking cool to be an out and out villain, but way too much of a spiteful butthole to be on the side of the angels and this jacked up version looks phenomenal. Wielding gargantuan, sweet-ass pecs straight out of a Rob Liefeld drawing and thunderous thigh muscles that scream that every day is leg day for Godzilla, he’s an utter beast, literally blasting everything in sight with his radioactive breath.
However, among the craziness, the devastation and an accused streak of Japanese nationalism, there’s moments of genuine poignancy present and I have to confess that the quasi tragic/absurd moment where Godzilla comes face to face with one of the men he saved back in 1942 and seemingly has a moment of reflection before suddenly sticking it in the fuck-it bucket and blowing everything to hell may be one of my most favorite moments from the franchise ever.
Dumb as a bag of Anguiruses it very may well be, but Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah is nevertheless tremendously entertaining, recklessly ambitious and a metric ton of hyperactive fun.
To paraphrase: it’s good to beat the king…
🌟🌟🌟🌟
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